Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to buttress materials used in joining body tissue and methods for attaching buttress materials to surgical instruments. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to compositions of staple line buttress materials which include biocompatible crosslinked polymers having electrophilic and nucleophilic functional groups.
Background of Related Art
Surgical stapling devices are employed by surgeons to sequentially or simultaneously apply one or more rows of fasteners, e.g., staples or two-part fasteners, to body tissue for the purpose of joining segments of body tissue together. Such devices generally consist of a pair of jaws comprising a staple anvil and cartridge between which the body tissue to be joined is placed. When the stapling device is actuated, or “fired”, a firing member or members contact staple drive members in one of the jaws. The staple drive members push the surgical staples through the body tissue and into an anvil in an opposite jaw which crimps the staples closed. If tissue is to be removed or separated, a knife blade can be provided in the jaws of the device to cut the tissue between the lines of staples.
When stapling relatively thin, diseased, or fragile tissues, a buttress may be employed to seal the staple line against air or fluid leakage. Additionally, a buttress may be used to reinforce the staple line against the tissue to prevent tears in the tissue or pulling of the staples through the tissue. A layer of buttress material is placed against the tissue and the tissue is stapled in conventional manner. The buttress provides support and reinforcement to the tissue and staple line.
Biocompatible polymers for use as tissue reinforcements, such as buttresses, remain desirable. Polymers having parameters which can be easily adjusted to accommodate specific procedures remain desired. Further, it would also be advantageous to provide a buttress which can accommodate various sizes and shapes of surgical instrument loading units (e.g., circular, linear, etc), providing ease of manufacturing.